


The Orange Kitten

by UpDownLeftGone



Category: Persona 4
Genre: M/M, i dunno man i just really love kittens, lil' kitten, note exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-22
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2020-05-16 13:25:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19319098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UpDownLeftGone/pseuds/UpDownLeftGone
Summary: Souji has just finished college and is finally moving into his own place in Okina City when he's greeted by a small orange kitten at his doorstep. The next day, he realizes the kitten comes with little notes and a connection to a new friend.





	The Orange Kitten

The cool autumn wind rippled through the buildings of Okina City, eventually making its way to a young man named Souji Seta. He had just finished college a few months back and was now starting to unload moving boxes from his mom’s car, preparing to start a new adult life. However, the young man did not notice the wind displacing wispy strands of his grey hair, as he was more preoccupied holding a rather heavy box, looking down at the little orangey-brown haired kitten which was currently meowing in his direction, turning in circles, and generally looking cute. 

So, as one would normally do, Souji put down the box and smiled, bending down to pat the little guy on the head, an affection which said little guy returned by headbutting his hand. 

“What’d you find there?” his mother asked from behind him. He moved out of the way and looked back, his mother’s look of curiosity immediately turned into a drawn out “awww” as she put down the lamp she was carrying and bent down next to Souji, allowing the small kitten to sniff her fingers before she started scratching behind its ear. The Seta family had always been animal people, but sadly their constant moving situation meant they could never keep a pet. Souji always seemed to have an affinity towards certain strays, though.

His mom sighed, “Too bad this place doesn’t allow animals, this one seems like a sweetheart.” She picked up the lamp, motioning for Souji to pick up his box and follow her. 

 

It only took about an hour to set up the apartment. Souji hadn’t brought much from home and the place was small to begin with anyways, only slightly bigger than his old room back at home. After a long hug and a wave goodbye, his mom was off, and Souji was finally alone in his own place. It felt good to have his own little cube, not having to worry about anyone besides himself, but it was scary at the same time. While he didn’t have many friends back in Tokyo, the few he did have were now hours away, as was his mom. He was truly alone for the first time. 

So, instead of staying cooped up in his own apartment, he decided he should get out and explore the city while he still could, considering he would be stuck at work in two days time. Grabbing his new shiny apartment keys, he stepped foot into the world of Okina City, only to be stopped by a light “meow” at his feet. 

The same kitten was on his porch, hopefully looking up at him. Again, he bent down and started scratching the kitten, who promptly started purring and turning in circles, eventually flopping over to expose it’s light orange belly, and stretching. This allowed Souji to get a better look at it, both confirming it was a her, and that she was indeed a stray. Her orange fur was matted, stuck up to look almost spikey, the dirt woven in made her look brown-haired from a distance. That being said, she was also very well-fed for a stray. Someone was probably taking care of her, the thought warmed his heart.

After a few minutes of scritching and petting, Souji patted the little kitty goodbye and started off for the town. The kitten watched curiously as he left, but she didn’t follow him. 

 

~~~

 

One good lunch and a few groceries later, Souji returned home, particularly excited to see his new little friend. But, when he reached the door, there were no meows. Slightly disappointed, he looked around, only to see another young man, probably somewhere around his age, crouched down feeding the small kitten a few doors down. He was wearing a black band tee and blue skinny-jeans, a pair of orange headphones - which matched his orange sneakers - draped around his neck. His chocolate-brown hair was styled almost comically like the kitten’s, only less dirt and twigs. Color changing LEDs peeked out from behind the curtain of his apartment, illuminating the yellow bike leaning up against his porch. 

The stranger noticed him staring and waved, smiling. Souji smiled back a little awkwardly, unable to wave due to the grocery bags he was holding, and then entered his apartment for the night. 

 

~~~

 

The next day was significantly colder than the last. After a simple breakfast of cereal and milk, Souji stepped outside with a basic grey sweater and his laptop bag. He didn’t have his own internet set up yet and didn’t feel like mooching off of his neighbors, so the local cafe was his only option. Once again, however, as soon as he stepped outside, the little orange kitten stopped him, hopefully staring up and meowing. This time, though, she looked better brushed out. There were only a few twigs left and the dirt was cleared away to the point where he could easily make out her orange stripes underneath the grime. An orange flea collar was wrapped around her neck, and a piece of paper was pinned to the back of it. Curious, Souji put down his bag and bent down, taking the piece of paper. It was a note. 

 

_ Hi Stranger!  _

_ My name is Jiraiya, or at least that’s what the dude in apartment 304 likes to call me. I’m a stray who showed up here a few weeks ago, not many people here like me, but I still try! I’m not allowed inside due to the mean landlord, but I still enjoy it here! You seemed like a very nice person yesterday, I enjoyed the pets. _

_ The dude who takes care of me’s name is Yosuke Hanamura and he says you are very welcome to help out, I need the love. What’s your name?  _

 

That person next door must’ve noticed him petting the kitten the other day. Souji smiled, grabbing a pen from his pocket and thinking for a second. Taking care of strays was great in theory, but he knew how it could end. Kittens weren't meant to stay outside, if he got attached and something happened… he didn't know if he could handle that again. 

But, Jiraiya was looking up at him, pleading eyed and fluffy faced. How could he just leave such a sweet thing out in the cold? It was better to try, so after a few minutes of thinking, he gave in.

 

_ Hi Jiraiya (and probably Hanamura-san, as I would assume you wrote this note), _

_ My name is Souji Seta and as I’m sure as you can tell, I just moved in yesterday. I would love to help take care of Jiraiya, she is a very sweet kitten. Just let me know what she needs.  _

 

Souji reattached the note to Jiraiya’s collar, allowing a small scratch behind her ear before picking up his bag and leaving for the small corner cafe. 

 

~~~

 

Jiraiya was once again waiting at his door when he came home, a new note pinned to her collar. Souji bent down and looked at it, petting her in the process. 

 

_ Oh come on I really tried to make it look like she wrote that note. Can’t believe you guessed it was me lol. Anyways, nice to meet you Seta-san, as of right now I have food covered and I took Jiraiya to the vet as soon as I found her. She’s technically under my name, but obviously she can’t live w/ me. The landlord here kinda stinks. She just needs some love, I’m not home very often in the evening cuz of my job but she likes people a lot and for some reason the people around here don’t really like her, so I tend to be the only one she gets any love from.  _

_ Cya around, _

_ Yosuke Hanamura _

 

He looked over at his neighbor’s window, sure enough all of the lights were off and the bright yellow bicycle he saw parked out front yesterday was missing. With a meow of disapproval, he took his hand away from the kitten, once again reaching for his pen. 

 

_ Ha, sorry. Your note was very convincing. I wholeheartedly believed it was Jiraiya writing until you called yourself “dude”. Jiraiya is a formal lady and I don’t believe she would refer to the person who takes care of her as such. Anyways, can do on the love part. I’ve always liked cats but I’ve never been able to have one myself. I’m sure Jiraiya appreciates having someone take care of her when everyone else doesn’t seem to want her, she really seems to like you.  _

_ Best regards, _

_ Souji Seta _

 

~~~

 

The next day saw the start of Souji’s first ever work regimine. He woke up 2 hours early and was out the door by 7:15. It only took him 15 minutes to get to the office and he didn’t have to be there until 8, but he decided he was better early than late. So he straightened his tie and opened the door, only to be greeted with another soft “mew”. A puffy-haired orange kitty looked up at him, it took him a second to realize it was Jiraiya. She was bathed and brushed, her once matted orange hair now poofed up in all directions, the bright orange fur bringing out her shiny blue eyes. A new piece of paper was stuck to her collar. 

She brushed up against Souji’s new black dress pants as he took the note.

 

_ Managed to sneak her in and bath her last night. Good thing there’s no one awake here at 4am lol. She looks great, huh? _

 

Souji attempted to brush off his pants and scratched Jiraiya behind the ear as he wrote his note back.

 

_ She looks amazing! I love her blue eyes. What kind of job do you have that has you working until 4am? _

 

Realizing the amount of orange fur that had rubbed off on his dress pants, Souji sighed, returning to his apartment and lint-rolling the hair off. He was only 10 minutes early that day. 

 

~~~

 

Once again, he returned home to a “meow” and a note. His first day had gone better than he expected, but he was still exhausted. This time, he sat on the steps to his apartment and Jiraiya crawled up onto his lap, purring and kneading his dress shirt. He didn’t mind.

 

_ I work as a bartender on mainstreet, actually. My band started doing gigs at this place and the owners “liked my charisma” or something and said I should try bartending out. I’m not complaining, it’s actually a really fun job, you meet a lot of interesting people (the ladies are definitely a plus if you know what I mean) and I like the late hours. 6pm to 3am is kind of grueling, but it’s totally my “in the zone” time. Where do you work? Anyways, I ran out of treats for Jiraiya so if you want to be the treat-giver then I can be the food giver!  _

 

He looked over at his neighbor’s apartment, sure enough the light was off and the bike was gone again. It almost surprised him how disappointed he was, with hours like that their schedules would almost never match up, in fact he didn’t actually realize how much he wanted to meet his fellow cat-carer until now. Still, he picked up his pen, Jiraiya now asleep on his lap. 

 

_ I just work in the office down the street, I don’t mind it. I went to college for business and decided to move here from Tokyo, Okina seems more homey. Doesn’t seem like our hours are going to match up, I wake up at 6am and get home at 5:30pm. At least Jiraiya will have someone around nearly 24/7! And yes, I can absolutely go pick up some treats.  _

 

He sat there with Jiraiya until the sun went down, then carefully transferred the cat to the warm spot he left on the concrete, brushed himself off, and left to get some cat treats. 

 

~~~

 

The next few months were all the same. Sure enough, their schedules never matched up, and to Souji’s dismay it always seemed like at least one of them was always out on the weekend. 

 

Still, he learned a lot about his neighbor through the simple notes. Turns out they were both from the big city, his family moved to a small town close to Okina called Inaba back when he was 16. He wanted to move back to Tokyo, but his parents wouldn’t let him, so Okina was his next choice. He told Souji about his old city friends and his friends from the small town, and how he realized his friends from Inaba were good people while his Tokyo friends kinda sucked. He described the Junes his dad owned and how he hated working there, how mean a lot of people in the town were to him since the superstore drove a lot of the small businesses out. He also talked about recent things, like finally trading in his bike for a motorcycle he had his eye on since high school. At some point, Yosuke stopped referring to him as Seta-san and started calling him “partner”. He didn’t mind.

On the other hand, Souji told him about his past, about his city life and how his mother was a single mom. Turns out both of them were only children and they both enjoyed going to the arcade in Shibuya as kids. Dance Dance Revolution was apparently Yosuke’s life in middle school. Souji prefered the more strategic games. Still, maybe they ran into each other sometime before. 

 

And so the pattern continued, there always seemed to be a new note when he woke up and got home.

 

And then it started snowing. 

 

The first day he was only a little bit anxious. Jiraiya didn’t show up in the morning, but she was also growing up, becoming a more adult cat. She was probably becoming more independent, out there doing adult cat things. Still, it meant no note from Yosuke, which was kind of disappointing.

 

And then it snowed more overnight. 

 

Now he was starting to get worried, she still wasn’t showing up. But he hoped for the best, she was probably under a porch or maybe a nice family took her in, he could go around to the local pounds looking for her later. 

But after a long day of work and then searching, nothing came up. He got home, ready to print out “Lost Kitten” flyers, but instead passed out at his desk.

 

He slept until he heard a rapid knocking at his door, paired with the doorbell going wild. Before he was fully awake, he checked the time. 4:30am. Who in this ungodly hour-? The pounding started again before he could finish his thought.

He threw on a t-shirt over his lounge pants and went for the door. A look out the peephole showed him a frantic-looking neighbor in a black button-up covered by a white jacket paired with ripped black jeans, cradling something that resembled a ball of ice. A ball of ice with cat ears. And a tail. 

The situation suddenly hit him and he opened the door as quickly as possible. 

“I-I don’t know w-what happened. I was riding home a-and I saw her o-on the side of the r-road. S-she’s still breathing I-I just-” Yosuke stuttered, entering the apartment, not meeting Souji’s eyes. 

“Do you know where the vet is?” Souji asked, more alert than ever.

Yosuke nodded. “I think they’re open 24/7.” 

Souji quickly threw on a jacket, grabbing the cat and holding her close to him. 

“You said you had a motorcycle? Lets go.”

Yosuke nodded and left, closing the door behind him. 

 

They ran out to the bike, Yosuke tossed Souji a helmet, and they were off. Jiraiya was freezing, pressed close to Souji under his jacket as he tried to warm her up. 

           It was only then that Souji realized how close to tears he was, he jumped into emergency mode when he saw Yosuke and Jiraiya, but now, all he could do was sit on the motorcycle and wait. This cat - the little thing that greeted him when he first arrived, the thing he looked most forward too when waking up and going to bed, with the little notes always sending a happy bolt of energy through him, the only connection he had to anyone resembling a friend since he moved - was now hanging on to dear life in his arms. He kept telling himself it would be ok, that it wouldn’t be like last time, that Jiraiya would make it, but the nagging voice in his head kept telling him he had made the same mistake again, one question permeating them all:  _ was it really worth it? _

            One hand was around the cat, and the other one was around Yosuke’s waist to keep himself from falling off, allowing him to feel his friend’s quick panicked breaths, reminding him that he wasn’t the only one there. He wasn't alone this time.

Souji took a shaky breath. 

“It’ll be ok, partner,” Yosuke almost whispered as they were impatiently stopped at a red light. There was something strange about hearing his nickname outloud, but now wasn’t the time to worry about that. 

After what felt like hours they turned into the small corner clinic, a smiling cat and dog window decal met them before Yosuke flung the door open and went straight for the counter, explaining hurriedly what happened. Souji didn’t hear him though, he unzipped his coat, the cold ragdoll-like kitten laying limp in his hands. In seconds, a veterinary assistant was reassuring them as she took the kitten and disappeared into a back room. 

 

Yosuke filled out some paperwork as they waited silently in the small waiting room, the smiling cat on the door mocking them. Eventually, Yosuke got up to turn the form and clipboard in, the receptionist disappeared behind a door, and then it was just them in a mostly empty room. Yosuke’s elbows were resting on his legs, his face buried in his hands, and he wouldn’t stop tapping his right foot. Souji looked at him worriedly, his neighbor’s outward appearance very much reflecting what he himself was feeling. Still, in a comforting attempt, he put his hand on Yosuke’s back, stroking with his thumb. Yosuke sighed, letting out some tension as his shoulders sagged and his foot stopped bouncing. 

He leaned back in his chair without looking at Souji. “Sorry. I just - I really want her to be alright, ya know?” He sighed again when Souji didn’t respond. 

A beat of silence filled the room, the city outside asleep as both of the boys awaited the news.

A few seconds later, Souji took a deep breath and looked up. “You know, she reminds me a lot of this cat I had back in the city. He was a grey tabby, I called him Izanami.” His smile fell as he recalled the rest of the story. “My parents didn’t want a pet so he was a stray, but I would feed him everyday on the way home from school, he was like my little secret buddy. I would stay behind and study at this one street corner, he loved to lay in my lap and purr. But then one day he left and... he didn’t come back,” Souji looked away from Yosuke, tears starting to form in his eyes. “Later I found out he was hit by a car and didn’t make it. I-I’m glad you found Jiraiya before something like that happened. I really wouldn’t want her to suffer the same fate.” He bit his lip, voice small. “She's going to be ok.”

Tears started falling down his cheeks now. Souji finally looked over at Yosuke who gave him a reassuring look, resting a hand on his shoulder in sympathy. The neighbor took a breath to say something, but the vet cut him off, emerging from the back room. 

“Well, I have some good news and some bad news,” she smiled sympathetically, looking back and forth between the two boys.

Souji and Yosuke shared a look. “Good news first,” Yosuke looked up at her, hopefully.

“The good news is that she is expected to make a full recovery. She must have been out there for a while, it may still take awhile for her to fully recover, but we don’t believe the hypothermia got bad enough to be life threatening.”

Yosuke made a relieved noise that was half a sob, a few more tears escaped Souji’s eyes and he had to stifle a sniffle. 

“So, what’s the bad news?” Yosuke creased his eyebrows and looked up at the vet. 

“Well, while hypothermia didn’t do her any harm, it seems something else did. Cats are normally resourceful at finding warmth, which is why it’s fairly rare we see one suffering from hypothermia unless they have an injury. It looks like it’s possible a car might have hit her and broke her back right leg and tail.” Souji winced, his breath catching. As if on instinct, Yosuke linked their fingers and lightly squeezed. Souji felt himself breath again, he wasn't alone, Jiraiya was ok. The vet either didn’t notice or decided not to comment, continuing on with what she was saying. “We believe we can save her back leg, but her tail was also badly frostbitten. It’s likely she’ll have to have it amputated.”

Yosuke immediately nodded his head. “That’s ok.”

“If you don’t have a place to house her, we can keep her here while she recovers,” the vet looked back and forth between them again, and sighed. “And, I know this is hard to hear, but if you can’t find a warm place to keep her, I highly recommend looking for someone who does have a safe place for her. I know it’s sad, but it’s only the beginning of winter, I don’t want to see her back here again but worse.” Yosuke nodded, looking more at the floor than the vet. He must have told her about the landlord situation when he first took Jiraiya in. “But, for now, we have her in a room if you would like to visit.”

Souji and Yosuke stood up, the vet motioning them towards a side room. They opened the door to see an assistant warming a lump of blankets with a hairdryer. It took Souji a second to realize the small orange ear sticking out of the blanket mound. He walked over to the little kitten, dwarfed by the mountain of fabric. She looked up at him with half-lidded eyes and slightly wet fur, but started purring as soon as she saw the two, even mustering up the energy to give a light headbutt when Souji started gently petting her head.

“She’s a very sweet cat,” smiled the vet assistant. 

Souji just nodded, and then realized he was crying again, he let out a strangled sigh. Yosuke grabbed a tissue and brought it over to him. “Thanks,” he nodded. 

They stayed there, all huddled together, the two boys and the kitten, for awhile. Yosuke was smiling, giving Jiraiya butterfly kisses right on her nose while Souji was scratching behind her ear as the cat purred like a motor, despite the utter ton of blankets. 

Before they left, the receptionist reassured them that she was in good hands, and the vet reminded them what she said about possibly finding a new home. The sun was already peeking out on the horizon when they got outside, splaying pinks and oranges across the sky. 

Yosuke leaned against the bike, his hair was a mess and his black bartender button-up was both wrinkled and covered in cat fur. Souji didn’t notice it before, but Yosuke’s hair had grown a bit since he last saw him, a darker brown was peeking out under the lighter chocolate-brown. He mentioned once in one of his letters that he dyed it, but both colors seemed to suit him. The jacket Souji originally thought was bright white in the dark actually turned out to be an off-white with slightly darker spots on it, likely from years of wear and tear. The whole outfit really suited him, he looked good. 

Suddenly Souji was self-conscious about his matching grey t-shirt and sweat jacket, not to mention his blue and white checkered lounge pants adorned with a sleeping cat pattern. Changing wasn’t even a thought that occurred to him in his panicked state.

Yosuke looked down and bit his lip. “So uh, do you have any ideas about what we could do? I mean, I could possibly give her to one of my friends in Inaba, but I don’t really know if they’d want her…” he groaned, “and all of your family’s in Tokyo, huh? If they didn’t want a cat before I doubt they’d want one now.” 

Souji thought for a second, he had an idea, but he didn’t want to say anything until he’d researched it. “We’ll figure something out.”

Yosuke nodded, looking down at his phone. “Ah shit, it’s already 7. Think you’ll make it to work on time?”

Souji shook his head, “I’ll just call in, I don’t think I really wanna go to work after all of this anyways.” 

“Alright,” Yosuke stood there for a second, crossing his arms. “I guess we should probably get back home.”

Souji nodded as Yosuke threw his leg around the motorcycle and started it. Souji stared for a second, only coming back to reality when Yosuke tossed him the other helmet. He climbed on the back and they were off, heading towards the apartments. Now Souji had both of his hands to steady himself on Yosuke, although now it felt oddly awkward. 

It only took about seven minutes to reach the apartment complex, even with the traffic. A considerably shorter time compared to the seemingly hours it took to get to the clinic. 

Yosuke pulled into the parking space that Souji was used to looking at from a distance, taking his helmet off and shaking out his hair. Souji climbed off the bike and gave Yosuke his own helmet with a slight nod.

He started walking towards his apartment only to be stopped by an “Uhh.” He turned back around to see Yosuke looking at him sheepishly. “Yaknow if you uh, need anything don’t bother to ask. I uh - I probably won’t be sleeping today,” he chuckled, scratching the back of his neck. 

Souji nodded, “I’ll keep that in mind.” 

 

He entered his apartment, stretched and yawned for a second, poured himself a coffee, called in sick, and then got to work. 

Grabbing a pen and notebook, he sat down at his laptop, thankful to finally have his internet working. He wasn't going to let something happen to Jiraiya again.

He scrolled through apartment listings, writing a few of them down. There were a couple of nice ones close to them, 2 bed 1 bath with a kitchen and living area. A few even came fully furnished. 

After about an hour, he shut his laptop and put it in his bag along with a piece of paper that had 5 apartment addresses scribbled on it. He quickly showered, put on some actual clothes, combed out his hair, and then left his apartment. 

It was weird not being greeted by Jiraiya. With a frown, he sighed and walked down a few doors, stopping at the one marked “304”. He bit his lip and knocked. 

Yosuke answered. His clothes had changed, he had on a white t-shirt with a red bird-like decals and red-orange skinny jeans. The same pair of orange headphones he had on the first time Souji saw him hung around his neck, this time they matched the orange pair of glasses he was now wearing. A can of some sort of American energy drink sat in his right hand.“Part- uh, Sou- er, Seta-san, hey!” It was like Yosuke suddenly didn’t know what to call him.

Souji smiled. “Feel free to call me Souji, or, honestly I was getting attached to that nickname, ‘partner’. Mind if I come in?”

“O-Of course!” Odd, was Yosuke blushing?

He stood out of the way, motioning for Souji to enter. 

The apartment looked almost exactly like he’d expected. An old flat screen TV leaned against the wall next to the window. It sat in front of three patched up bean bags, one red, one green, and one blue. A strand of color changing LEDs wound their way haphazardly around a few different gaming consoles, the controllers of which were splayed out between the bean bags and the TV. A futon was folded out next to it all, blankets thrown on in a way that might have been considered a “made bed” to a 16 year old. On the other side of the room, black shelves held what must have been around 70 CDs, band posters curling at their edges pinned up next to them. At the far back of the room, an acoustic guitar hung alongside an electric one, adorned by more LEDs, obviously Yosuke’s pride and glory. Meanwhile, the “kitchen” area was nothing more than a toaster oven perched on top of what looked like his old college textbooks, which sat next to a sink and an old beat-up mini-fridge. 

Souji briefly rethought his decisions, but stopped when Yosuke plopped down onto his sofa and blew a piece of hair out of his face. “Sup’?”

Souji was suddenly a little uncomfortable, shifting his feet. “Well - so I was thinking. I know you really don’t want to give up Jiraiya, I really don’t either,” he sat down next to Yosuke and took out his laptop. “So I was thinking,” he fumbled with the paper for a second, “that uh,” he hid a fake cough in his arm, “maybe we could move to a place that allows animals and... keep her?” He paused for a second, unable to read the room, while his eyes trailed back over to the piece of paper. “So, there are some places where it would actually be cheaper to split the rent and-” 

“Y-you mean like roommates?!” 

Souji looked over, he noticed that Yosuke was blushing again with a shocked look on his face, and nodded. “Y-yeah. Like roommates. It’s just an idea though…” he started to put the small slip of paper back. 

“Well, actually, I was kinda thinking the same thing… I just didn’t think you would agree to it, yaknow with the lease and all that...” He was doing that thing where he avoided eye contact by scratching the back of his neck again. 

“Well, in that case, I actually found a few places earlier if you wanna take a look.” 

Yosuke nodded a little too quickly, his glasses sliding down his nose. He pushed them back up and looked over at the computer screen, expectedly. 

 

They chatted for a few hours, and even made plans for a few viewings. 

 

~~~

 

By the next week, they had one picked out and had finalized payments on their current leases. It was a place just around the corner, a 2 bed 1 bath apartment with a full kitchen and a nice living area, it even came partially furnished and, of course, it was pet-friendly. 

 

Yosuke decided to shift his hours around, working as a waiter while Souji was in the office during the week, and then the late hours as a bartender on Fridays and Saturdays, takings Sundays off, allowing them more time together. 

Souji told him that he didn’t have to, they were just roommates after all, but he insisted. 

 

~~~

 

It wasn’t long after they moved in that they both went back to the clinic to pick up Jiraiya. She was still a little sleepy and her tail was gone, replaced with stitches and a bandaid, while her leg was wrapped in a bright pink cast. Despite that, she stood up, rubbed against the bars of her cage, and purred as soon as she saw Souji and Yosuke. 

The vet explained the medications she had to take for the next few weeks, telling them it was mostly going to be her tail they had to worry about. Her cast was coming off that day, kittens heal fast apparently.

They were allowed to be in the room while the vet cut off the cast, Souji and Yosuke both smiled and cheered when it came off and Jiraiya started prancing around the room. 

Souji set up a check-in date with the receptionist while Yosuke scratched Jiraiya in between the bars of her carrier. 

 

Yosuke carried her on the way home, they decided to walk since the motorcycle would probably scare her more than help. 

“Think she’ll like the new place, partner?” Yosuke smiled over at Souji, his breath framing his face as he walked, the cool water vapor ascending past his orange headphones and sky-blue hoodie, his glasses framing the smile on his face. Souji took close notice. 

“I think she’ll love it,” he smiled back. 

 

Once home, Yosuke dragged Souji into playing video games while Jiraiya slept between them. Souji actually won a good amount of the matches, but he had a weird feeling that Yosuke let him most of the time. Eventually they switched over to a movie, but mainly ended up talking over it. It was nice hearing what his neighbor - now roommate - had to say out loud instead of through paper. Eventually, Jiraiya crawled onto Souji’s lap, allowing Yosuke to move closer. Souji didn’t complain. 

Yosuke fell asleep with his head on Souji’s lap, while Souji fell asleep with his arm around the other boy. The kitten was curled up on Yosuke’s stomach, moving up and down with his breathing. If anyone could see the two, they would probably think they were together and, honestly, neither of them would mind that. 

Maybe deny it, but not mind it. 

**Author's Note:**

> and they all lived happily ever after cuz thats what they d e s e r v e 
> 
> alright, alright, but it's our trash boi's birthday so naturally i had to post something. it's not quite a birthday fic but this has been sitting in my folders for a good 3 or 4 months now and frankly i'm not sure why i haven't posted it yet.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed reading! <3


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